Firms are drowning in data. There’s data on profitability and productivity, client satisfaction and marketing effectiveness—and even more data on how those things tie together. If properly leveraged, that data can provide key insights into how, when, and why to evolve your firm. Thankfully, advanced computing power can help your firm management use data to make important decisions. Here are four important benefits of accounting firm business intelligence tools.
Ensuring Data Integrity
A firm’s ability to leverage its data is only as good as the data they input. In fact, a consistent and comprehensive workflow to capture client data during intake can help ensure that information like addresses—both physical and email—are correct and complete. And data visualizations can help you spot data that’s out of order at-a-glance.
Building Data Analytics Skillsets with Dashboards
Dashboards and data visualizations are valuable tools. So it’s helpful if staff understand how to really leverage them and even create them. Training and helping staff build new skillsets will pay off as everyone in the firm gets a better grasp of data analytics. The prebuilt dashboards in a tool like CCH Axcess™ Data Axcess Dashboards can teach staff the nuances of how to dig into data. Once they’re more comfortable working that way, custom dashboards can provide even deeper insights into profitability and productivity.
Targeting Data for More Effective Marketing
Much of marketing used to mean taking your best guess at which client or prospect to target with what message. But as email marketing and data analytics have evolved, it’s become easier to identify the right audience and to send them an accurately crafted message. You can pinpoint a specific segment rather than sending a more general message. Plus, you can analyze the results to fine-tune and create even more focused campaigns.
Assessing Individual Accountability
In addition to tracking client data, looking at internal data like staff members’ time tracking and effective rate provides insights into individual performance and productivity. Firm management can use the data in a realization dashboard for performance improvement, but also to assess what kind of projects are most profitable and if work is being properly delegated. Staff also can see their own numbers and how they compare to others in the firm, which can inspire puts the power of accountability into individuals’ hands so they can see and move their own metrics.
Learn more ways to leverage accounting firm business intelligence tools by downloading our ebook “New Strategies for Data Analytics and Business Intelligence.”
